The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) annually conducts the principal international eye research meeting. Over 10,000 eye and vision researchers attend this meeting, which is held in the United States. Over 6,000 researchers submit scientific abstracts describing their recent eye and vision research findings. Of these, over 5,500 abstracts are accepted for presentation in paper and poster sessions during the five-day meeting. The ARVO Annual Meeting is targeted to clinical practitioners, research scientists, medical education professionals, and students-in-training from a variety of disciplines. The research objectives of the National Institutes of Health and of the National Eye Institute are well-represented in the Annual Meeting programs and individual presentations. The research presented at the ARVO Annual Meeting represents the latest developments in understanding, diagnosing, preventing and treating the many sight-threatening diseases and conditions. This meeting is of particular importance in the development of new and early-career investigators, as it provides not only a forum for presentation and critical analysis of their work, but also an informal setting in which they can discuss their research problems. By associating with the leaders in the field, new and early-career investigators can see the value of continued dedicated research efforts. The overall objective of this grant is to provide partial support for travel to the ARVO Annual Meeting for those new and early-career investigators who demonstrate potential for future success as eye and vision researchers and whose research findings to be presented at the Meeting are considered to be of high interest to the ophthalmic research community. The purpose of this grant is to partially fund travel for 100 investigators to attend the ARVO meeting each year for the next five years from 2008 to 2012. The dates for the next five ARVO Annual Meetings are: April 27-May 1, 2008, May 3 - 7, 2009, May 2 - 6, 2010, May 1 - 5, 2011, and May 6 - 10, 2012. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]